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Here’s What You’ve Missed!
- So long, and thanks for all the fish
- How soon is now?
- The Kung Fu Panda principle.
- 3 reasons why I hate pretty graphs
- How to make the world seem REEAAALLLY BOORRRIIIING
- The 2,500 year old lesson everybody ignores cos it’s too hard
- I am a police officer.
- When is a team meeting NOT a team meeting?
- Folk management
- Double Trouble
- Toads
- WANTED: systemsy stuff to cheer me up
- The secret management model that must not be named
- Why WIFFY’s are bad and to be squashed at birth
- First they came for the desks, and nobody said NUFFINK
- Vanity of vanities, all is vanity OR Why webstats don’t exist
- One more time… Why values are a pile of cobbler’s
- How i learned to skip with Toyota
- The man who mistook his wife for an actual change in performance
- There are only 6 graphs you’ll ever see on a performance report and they’re all rubbish. Here they are.
- If it’s too complicated to understand it’s probably total nonsense
- Can you count up to 8?
- I am totally positive
- I am totally negative
- Thor describes my purpose
- I openly mock Myers Briggs, but an INTP would do
- The Law Of The Instrument
- Reality has a liberal bias
- Why killing Sweat Angels is the most valuable work I do all day
- Cloud cuckoo-land
- Dear Santa, All I want for Christmas is a pony
- One weird trick to design your organisation, in one easy step! (Management consultants will HATE you!)
- The Varieties of Human Work
- There really is only one test!
- The Curious Case Of The Chart That Didn’t Bark In The Night
- Looking good, Billy Ray!
- Computers are weird
- We’re number 2! We’re number 2! Yay us! Now who’s US exactly?
- I am an average employee
- How to be hopelessly untrendy
- Why you SHOULDN’T try to improve performance measures!
- The sun is in Uranus
- Lean, ISO and 6 Sigma all walk into a bar. Hilarity ensues.
- Three Reasons Why National Customer Service Week Is Rubbish! Again!
- What’s the purpose of a-SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!
- How to have an organisational detox!
- Your job is not what you think it is
- This mug cost £224,000,000
- Wanted: idle, indifferent and irresponsible staff for absurd work.
- You are no Daniel Kahneman, sir, and I would have you unhand me before I call the gendarmie
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- 95% system 5% individual
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- don't let the bastards grind you down
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Category Archives: me doing it
First they came for the desks, and nobody said NUFFINK
What’s the DEFINING FEATURE of a bureaucrat?They have a bureau! Or rather, a desk, cos we’re not French and thanks to Brexit no longer have to follow EU regulations on what we call our desks. The bureaucrat has a desk. … Continue reading
Posted in command and control, me doing it, purpose, systems thinking
Tagged change, gervais principle, loser, purpose
11 Comments
What writing this blog taught me about pull
There’s always been a strong tang of resigned self pity running through this blog, like the reek of faeces in a brace of grilled andouillettes. This post however should truly please the connoisseur of bleak despair. Read on, and enjoy … Continue reading
Posted in change, command and control, me doing it, public sector, systems thinking
Tagged blog, pull, systems thinking
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10 years a Policy Officer
This is my desk. I have sat in this, and others like it, for exactly 10 years in this organisation. My decade anniversary is today. In 2004 in the interview for this job I had to give a presentation answering “What … Continue reading
Posted in me doing it, psychology, systems thinking
Tagged learning, psychology, systems thinking
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25 things (that just might work) about measuring the right thing
I’ve concocted 25 suggestions, questions, hints and tips for a colleague policy officer who has seen the systemsy light yet still faces the task that everybody else hasn’t. Here they are. One just might work. All might be complete duff. No … Continue reading
7 ways to do the Vanguard Method all wrong
Read this first. It was very popular and there’s marbles in it. If you’re too lazy here’s a summary: I went to the executive leadership team, I talked to them about something that started with studying demand and eventually led to huge … Continue reading
How to break the first rule of systems thinking
The problem with having to go into a room to speak about systems thinking is The First Rule. You know, the first rule… 3 months ago I had to go into the senior leadership team meeting to say what had … Continue reading
Kanban dos and don’ts
An Infographic I did for my team when we introduced a kanban for team work. Not necessarily correctly, or usefully, but there it is anyway blocking my view out the window. Any mistakes or errors of understanding or communication, all … Continue reading
My Red Beads Experiment (part1)
Remember this? These are the jars that a man is using to count out the rest of his days using beads. I thought I’d like to do something with coloured beads and jars to measure the value of what I … Continue reading
Posted in customer, experiment, me doing it, purpose, systems thinking
Tagged Experiment, value
1 Comment
What colour is my work?
Here are coloured beads in 2 jars. A man (a slightly famous games designer in his 60s) every day takes a bead from the right jar and pops it into the jar on the left. Each bead represents a day. … Continue reading
Posted in customer, me doing it, purpose, systems thinking
Tagged customer, support service, value
3 Comments
How to get it
Has she got it? Well, has she? This is what I’ve heard people ask, if someone has got it or not. Meaning systems thinking. Of course. It’s not like getting the measles, I know that, but I’ve been puzzled for … Continue reading
How to start a library of dead ideas
A great big Nazi bomb couldn’t scare these gents off their knowledge. But you wouldn’t need a bomb in most organisations. Not because people don’t like knowledge, but because you need a memory to have knowledge. Memory and knowledge aren’t about memorising lists of facts, like … Continue reading
Posted in data, information, learning, me doing it, public sector
Tagged failed ideas, museum
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A cheap notebook
This notebook could save your bacon Here’s why [link] Daniel Kahneman was asked how we can improve our performance. Kahneman, the author of Thinking: Fast and Slow, replied, almost without hesitation, that you should go down to the local drugstore … Continue reading
Posted in learning, me doing it, plans, public sector, systems thinking
Tagged cognitive bias, notebook, planning
7 Comments
Drip..drip…drip
“Just rang for a taxi – had an automated system in saying do you want to be picked up from X. Which I did so pressed 1….20 mins later no taxi so I rang them. Woman says ‘did you use … Continue reading
Posted in Demand, learning, me doing it, psychology, very short posts
Tagged failure demand
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Enter Kanban
Now scroll down. All the way down here please. Almost there. 5. 4 3 2 1 About here will do. Now, list as many of those objects as you can. After you’ve done that scroll down. More please. More than … Continue reading
The day I became a Policy Officer
When/if I do get the chance to start doing something systemsy, I’ll come back here and type about it. Ideally that would be next week but I doubt it as it has been almost two years since I’ve had a … Continue reading
Poof goes the purpose
“When people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing — they believe in anything.” G.K. Chesterton Anything goes when purpose isn’t there to tie everyone to reality. There’s no fad too superficial, no gimmick too glib, no novelty … Continue reading
Posted in clarity of purpose, communication, me doing it, systems thinking
Tagged sethgodin
15 Comments
Slug trails
I say, I say, I say, what is short, pointy and smaller than a banana? The words on that index card. I have to produce a performance report for my organisation every quarter. We send out a large official looking … Continue reading
The Policy Officer’s Creed
This my pen, there are many like it but this one is mine. My pen is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. My pen, without me, is useless. Without … Continue reading
Posted in me doing it, public sector, purpose, systems thinking
Tagged clarity of purpose, policy officer
3 Comments
Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?
ROLL UP! ROLL UP! Get your untested management assumptions here! People don’t like to think they’ve been made fools of. So they don’t think they’ve been made fools of, even when they have. And especially if they made fools of … Continue reading
Posted in change, learning, me doing it, public sector, systems thinking, thinking
Tagged cognitive bias, performance management
2 Comments
101 tactics for revolutionaries
You say you want a revolution, well you know we all want to change the world. John Lennon sang that, now I’m writing this. 101 tactics for low level, cubicle-dwelling systems thinkers. You’ve had the strategy, now here are your … Continue reading
Posted in change, learning, me doing it, systems thinking
Tagged systems thinking, thinking not tools
4 Comments
Why the world isn’t a triangle (and what happens when we act like it is)
I started talking about systems thinking at work, and elicited interest. This is of course good, but I was asked to write something up on different management models. So I decided to do a cartoon instead. This is it, attached. … Continue reading
I am Spartacus! And so’s my wife!
This year I came out. Lots of people knew I was that way inclined and in front of them I didn’t have to hide, but I wasn’t totally out. To some people I pretended and in some circumstances I pretended. There was … Continue reading
Today’s to-do list
Is complete. By asking people about purpose, “what matters” and what is the problem we are really trying to solve. Short words, but powerful in the correct order. More powerful than this too… A large hammer. I asked for a … Continue reading
Posted in communication, me doing it, purpose, systems thinking, very short posts
Tagged facilitation, Hammer
1 Comment
How to make a pig fatter (part 2 of 2)
The best customer feedback I’ve ever seen. And nobody asked them for it. Customers were so delighted at their re-designed service they spontaneously said these words. But before all this, before the thinking changed the service, this was how we … Continue reading
Posted in customer, knowledge, me doing it, systems thinking, systems thinking in housing benefits
Tagged surveys
1 Comment
4 steps to win PLUS free Gandhiometer
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” -Gandhi* Ignore If all you’ve got as leverage is anecdote or theory then this is all that going to happen. What would you do? Pay attention to … Continue reading
Posted in change, me doing it, psychology, systems thinking
Tagged change, psychology, Vanguard method
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I’m with stupid
“Think of how stupid the average person is… …and realize half of them are stupider than that.” George Carlin Some stupid stuff I done did Drinking from a Deming mug, with quotes on, for years. In meetings I would strategically … Continue reading
Posted in human brains are weird, me doing it, systems thinking, Uncategorized
Tagged quite stupid
1 Comment
I am Spartacus! And so’s my wife!
Arrgh! I buggered up, the real post is here https://thinkpurpose.com/2013/02/06/i-am-spartacus-and-sos-my-wife-2/
Posted in change, learning, me doing it, systems thinking
Tagged kittens are evil, OBA
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Systems thinking in Benefits-listening to demand (part 2)
Arguing is a good sign. Arguing is a good sign that people are engaging with listening to demand and are having to think through what they are there for. As described in the previous post, after each intial demand listening … Continue reading
Posted in Check, Demand, me doing it, systems thinking in housing benefits
3 Comments
Systems thinking in Benefits-listening to demand (part 1)
Listening to demand is exciting. Really powerful and enjoyable. I loved sitting behind a reception desk listening and watching a young lad proudly show me how he had arranged his files and leaflets, and how he deals with different people … Continue reading
51 things I have learned doing Systems Thinking in Benefits so far.
Listening to demand is exciting, enjoyable and worthwhile I thought I knew about Systems Thinking, turned out I had just memorised content from books. People like looking at control charts You don’t need to follow good design when putting data … Continue reading
“The more i practice the luckier I get”
– I was first contacted by Benefits because they were finding out what systems thinking, lean etc was, and they saw my name all over message boards on the IDEA, and noticed I worked in the same building. -a stream … Continue reading
Systems thinking in Benefits-before
I have worked at a local authority for several years in performance management, the authority has no background in systems thinking and as far as I am aware no-one else there was interested. I spent my time consistently boring people … Continue reading